This article takes an in-depth look at where the players at Whipsnakes Lacrosse Club come from.
Do you know which players attended the same high school? Which players were NCAA teammates, and which were fierce conference rivals?
Read on…
Whipsnakes And The Tour-Based Model
The Premier Lacrosse League has a tour-based model with all the clubs coming together at weekends to the same venue.
This means that the Whipsnakes Lacrosse Club doesn’t have a permanent base to call its home.
But you’d be wrong to think that the coaches don’t care where their players come from. The fastest way to establish a team culture in a young club is to have a core set of players who already know each other.
When the PLL was first set up, they had this to say about forming the teams:
…these teams have been built around players who have played in colleges together or played rivalries against each other…
Divya Goel, May 2019
Of all the clubs in the PLL, the Whipsnakes have taken this approach to the highest degree. They have more players from a single college than any other club.
Which Colleges Are Whipsnakes Players From?
The above map shows the ten states in the United States with alumni at Whipsnakes. Just scan across for the Whipsnakes logo!
The current team comes from eleven NCAA Division 1 colleges across these states.
Maryland is by far the highest-represented college at Whipsnakes with thirteen players on the roster.
That’s actually down from the twenty Terps in their inaugural season! If you’re curious, we’ve got the full breakdown of the Whipsnakes rosters since the start of the PLL.
Rutgers University comes in next but is a long way behind with three alumni at the club.
Terrapins at Whipsnakes
Six of the Maryland players on the current Whipsnakes roster were there from the beginning:
- Jake Bernhardt
- Kyle Bernlohr
- Jay Carlson
- Mike Chanenchuk
- Matt Dunn
- Michael Ehrhardt
There’s no doubt that these players have delivered for the club. Four were All-Stars in 2021: Bernhardt, Bernlohr, Dunn, and Ehrhardt.
In our review of player salaries at Whipsnakes, we estimate that these guys are the top earners at the club.
Since the inaugural season, Whipsnakes have kept to a tradition of swooping for Terps. They picked both Keegan Khan and Roman Puglise from Maryland in the 2022 college draft.
Scarlet Knights at Whipsnakes
Two of the three Rutgers University players overlapped in their college days.
Jackson Reid was a year behind Brennan Kamish and were college teammates.
Joe Nardella is more of a veteran, being over five years older than his fellow alumni. Nardella was an All-Star in 2021, and a player for the other two Knights to look up to.
Other colleges at Whipsnakes
Duke has two players on the roster, while the rest of the colleges represented at the club have one solitary alumnus.
- Denver
- Hobart
- Jacksonville
- Loyola
- Notre Dame
- Ohio State
- Virginia
- Yale
Former Rivals, Current Teammates
We had a quote in our opening section about building clubs around guys who played together in college.
But that wasn’t the only part of the quote. It also stressed rivalries from playing against each other.
The trio from Rutgers and the solitary player from Ohio State (Jackson Reid) have a traditional rivalry with Maryland from butting heads in the Big Ten Conference.
The two players from Duke (Justin Guterding and Brad Smith) would have a traditional rivalry with Wheaton Jackoboice from Notre Dame and Zed Williams from Virginia.
These three colleges all play in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Hometowns and High Schools
We’ve looked at the colleges, but what about the players’ hometowns?
Jay Carlson and Matt Dunn are from Baltimore, Maryland. Justin Guterding and Tim Muller are from Garden City, New York.
However, neither of these duos went to the same high school.
In contrast, Michael Ehrhardt and Tim Muller attended Chaminade High School on Long Island. There are three years age difference between them.
Wheaton Jackoboice and Jackson Read attended the Culver Military Academy in Indiana with a year between them.
Connor Kirst and Keegan Khan went to Delbarton in New Jersey. There was a year between them.
Canadian Players At The Club
Some other clubs, like Cannon and Chaos, have a high number of Canadians on the roster.
In contrast, Whipsnakes only have two.
Jackson Reid was selected in the 2022 college draft. He hails from Guelph, Ontario, and attended Ohio State.
Whipsnakes picked up Bryan Cole in the 2021 entry draft. Cole comes from Oakville, Ontario, and went to Maryland.
Which PLL Owner Played For The Club?
Here’s a triva question: which of the many owners of the PLL played for the Whipsnakes?
The answer is Chris Hogan, who you might also know as a wide receiver for the Patriots with two championship rings to his name.
If you’re curious about how he played for the club in 2021, check up our article on who owns the Whipsnakes (and the other clubs in the PLL). We’ve got a full section detailing Hogan’s brief but interesting history as a former Whipsnake.
